543252 - Folder List Doesn't Appear When Filing Messages (non-existent accountN is left in mail.accountmanager.accounts. Garbage by Tb 2, or garbage after duplicated serverX/accountN deletion by Tb 3.0)

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, defect)

Description

[Harvey]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.9.2) Gecko/20100115 Firefox/3.6
Build Identifier: Mozilla Thunderbird version 3.0.1

Recently upgraded TB to 3.1 from 2.0. Install appeared to be smooth. Process then appeared to change to a step which I believe was called "Indexing Messages". Following install and "Indexing" I opened program and found all of my messages shown in the proper files. (I retain many messages in a rather complex filing system under separate folders and sub-folders and keep the Inbox clean in addition to emptying Trash and Compacting Folders regularly.)

Problem began when I tried to save messages. When I highlight a message and click on "File", normally a list of folders appears or when right-clicking on the message and selecting either "Copy to" or "Move to" the same list of folders will appear. Not so with TB v 3.1. Clicking on "File", displays only a very small shaded square (about the size of a letter) below and to the left of of the term; i.e., no list of folders appears.

Right-clicking on "Copy to" or "Move to" displays only a very small shaded square (about the size of a letter) on the right edge of the dialog box; i.e., no list of folders appears.

I can drag a message into a folder/sub-folder in the message pane but there are many times when I copy the same message into multiple folders and message dragging will not work in the instance.

I have searched the "Help" files and Google for an answer and have come up dry.

FWIW I am running Windoze 2000 Pro service pack 4 (fully patched), AVG version 9 Anti-Virus and OnLine Firewall v 3.0. Machine is home-built, (about three [3] years ago), with Intel MB D975XBX2, Intel CoreDuo 6600, 2.4 GHz CPU and 3 Gb RAM.

My guess is that there is a fairly simple fix for this. Sure would appreciate some help! If I can't rectify this problem soon, I'll be going back to TB 2.0. My "Inbox" and "Sent" folder are rapidly filling!

Suggest you check out this thread http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=1710435&sid=b2059bf39b5263878f3f1ecc07b4a62f  for messages from others experiencing the same problem.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Harvey


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
See description under "Details".
Actual Results:  
As described under "Details".

Expected Results:  
Displayed a list of Account Names under which would appear a list of folders under each Account Name.  Should also have displayed an option entitled "Recent" indicating the Folders into which messages have been recently moved or copied.

As I regularly copy messages into multiple folders, I cannot use TB version 3.

Sure would appreciate a fix for this!

My guess is that it is being caused by a glitch in "prefs" but I certainly am no expert!

One last thing: Given that the problem in v 3 prevents me from copying messages into multiple folders, I've reverted back to v 2.  There are others shown in the MozillaZine thread who, I believe still have v 3 loaded who are experience the same problem who may be able to duplicate the problem should you need their help.  I am merely the first to report it, I believe.

Thanks again!

Comment 1

[gini_61]

I experienced this identical situation using Windows XP SP3 with TB 3.0.1

Comment 2

[Harvey]

Changed "Importance" to "Major" as it does cause a "major loss of function" which is the description of the term on the Bugzilla page, given that one cannot file messages.

Harvey

Comment 3

[Harvey]

Attachment: Image of Small Box Under File Button

Added image of small box appearing under "File" button.

Comment 4

[Harvey]

Attachment: Image of Small Box to Right of Copy-to Dialog Box

Added image of small box which appears to the right of the "Copy to:" dialog box.

Comment 5

[Philipp Kewisch [:Fallen] [:📆][:🧩]]

What error console messages do you get (Tools > Error Console)? If you often file messages, I created an extension that you might enjoy. Since it uses similar mechanisms to the normal filing options, you might have the same problem though. See https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/12018/

Comment 6

[Harvey]

Phillip,

I wish that I could help you but I had to revert to version 2.0.0.23 given that I was unable to file or copy my messages.  They just pile up to fast.  The worst of is that I did not check out the error console before reinstalling v 2.0.0.23.

Sorry!

I will post your question on the MozillaZine thread which will hopefully encourage another person who's experiencing the problem, and who still has version 3.0.1 installed.

BTW, that thread address, entitled "Folder List Doesn't Appear When Filing Messages" is:

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=1710435&sid=af4f523b489f9a868f3e783b9b309cd5&start=15

Comment 7

[Harvey]

Phillip,

No sooner did I submit the above message in answer to your question, but I received another response on the MozillaZine thread from a person who was able to get around the problem.  He, too, uses Win2k Pro.

Here is his response to my question as to how he managed to avoid the problem of non-appearing folders:

     "I start with a clean profile (that is to say: I didn't let thunderbird 
     merge my old profile)."

Hopefully, this will provide you with a clue as to what is causing this problem with those of us who wish to upgrade, rather than starting over and importing our Address Book(s) and Message files.  I use MozBackup and have used it to restore messages.  Although they all *seem* to reappear, the folder and file names are considerably corrupted with numerous unintended characters requiring hours of work to clean them up.  Anyway, hopefully, you or someone else will find a fix permitting all of us to upgrade to version 3.0.1.

I thank for your help!

Comment 8

[Gustaff]

Attachment: error message

This is the error message from the error console.

Comment 9

[Harvey]

Below are two (2) messages from a poster to the MozillaZine thread who seems to have found a possible cause for the problem:
___________________________________________________________________________
Posted Today by alanrf, 4:45 pm
Just an update.

I checked the error console when this occurs. This is what I get.

Error:

acct.incomingServer is null
chrome://messenger/content/folderWidgets.xml line 603

The code it trying to create the recent folder listing. This works perfectly well with my file structure in T2. In the code the developer's comments indicates some doubts about some logic issues. There appears to be a missing "reality check" here.

It will be interesting to see if others record the same error.

However even when removing every last account and only leaving the local folders the problem persists.

If I remove every last trace of T2 (programs and all mail files and folders) and do a clean install of T3 and then add accounts the problem does not appear. That is not a very workable solution for a structure containing 18 accounts and 5 years worth of mail.

Clearly a problem of trying to upgrade to T3 on top of T2. If there is a problem in the mail structure for T3 that was not in T2 it should be reported by the first time checks.

Although it is getting rather tiring reverting back to T2 after every test I am still looking at the prefs.js and if I find more info I will post it here.
alanrf
     
    
Today, 7:30 pm

Post Posted Today, 7:30 pm
Fixed it .... at least for my system and I hope that it may help some others (and the mindset of any developers or testers who lower their sights to the experiences of mere users of the product).

If my situation is typical this is only likely to be a problem for long-term or more adventurous users of Thunderbird. In the past I have used a range of different mail accounts. From time to time I have added an account and also from time to time I have deleted an account. That means that in the prefs.js file of Thunderbird gaps have appeared in the sequence of numbering accounts. So I have accounts 1 through 6, 7 is missing, 8-9 are present, 10 is missing, and accounts 11 through 21 are present. This information comes from the mail.account.accountx entries in prefs.js.

I took a look for accounts 7 and 10 in the prefs.js file. No surprise - they were found. They appeared in the pref.js entry:

mail.accountmanager.accounts

When I removed the non-existent accounts from this list of accounts then the problem of "Move to" and "Copy to" is resolved .. at least on this system. We can probably put this down to the sloppiness of account removal in earlier Thunderbird releases. Surely it cannot still be there can it? (Just to be sure I tested it - no it is not).
___________________________________________________________________________
From what alanrf has found, it appears that the problem lies with installing TB version 3.0.1 over the top of version 2.0.0.23 which those of us do to avoid having to recreate numerous accounts and import or restore years of eMail messages consuming hours upon hours of time.

I don't believe that I've mentioned it before, but it seems as if the problem exists with those of using Windoze 2000 PRO and XP all fully updated and patched.

Again, here is the URL for the MozillaZine thread entitled "Folder List Doesn't Appear When Filing Messages":

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=1710435&p=8594525&e=8594525

Sure would appreciate a fix that we permit all of us to upgrade from v 2.0.0.23 to 3.0.1 without have to recreate the whole "bag of worms".

Thanks again!

Harvey

Comment 10

[Gustaff]

I can confirm this:

Removing the non-existent account in prefs.js in "mail.accountmanager.accounts" fixes the bug.

Comment 11

[gini_61]

Sorry to be so dense, but I'm not exactly sure what should/shouldn't be here. The following are what I believe to be the pertinent lines from prefs.js :

user_pref("mail.account.account2.server", "server2");
user_pref("mail.account.account3.server", "server3");
user_pref("mail.account.account4.identities", "id2");
user_pref("mail.account.account4.server", "server1");
user_pref("mail.account.account6.identities", "id4");
user_pref("mail.account.account6.server", "server5");
user_pref("mail.account.account7.identities", "id7,id1");
user_pref("mail.account.account7.server", "server7");
user_pref("mail.account.account8.identities", "id5");
user_pref("mail.account.account8.server", "server6");
user_pref("mail.accountmanager.accounts", "account2,account7,account1,account4,account6,account8,account3");
user_pref("mail.accountmanager.defaultaccount", "account7");
user_pref("mail.accountmanager.localfoldersserver", "server2");

What should be deleted (assuming I'm adventurous enough to upgrade to TB 3 again)?

Thank you!

Comment 12

[Gustaff]

(In reply to comment #11)
> user_pref("mail.accountmanager.accounts",
> "account2,account7,account1,account4,account6,account8,account3");

Try this:
user_pref("mail.accountmanager.accounts",
"account2,account7,account4,account6,account8,account3");

Comment 13

[gini_61]

Thank you! Prior to re-upgrading I will delete the offending "account1" in the referenced line.

Comment 15

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

bienvenu: have we already fixed this somewhere for 3.0.2 or do we need to fix it still?

Comment 16

[David :Bienvenu]

We haven't landed the patch for 3.02 that should fix this - the patch in bug 505465 should remove accounts without servers, iirc.

Comment 18

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Can someone who was seeing this problem retest it in Thunderbird 3.0.2 or later please?

We believe that bug 505465 may have fixed this.

Denying blocking as we think this is already fixed.

Comment 19

[Harvey]

Mark,

It appears that 3.0.2 corrected the problem.  At least that is my experience.  I've also updated to 3.0.3 and all is still working.

Thanks so much for your hard work and that of others!

Harvey

Comment 20

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Harvey, excellent, thanks for letting us know. I'll mark this as fixed.